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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24883108">love is like a child</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/greywardenblue/pseuds/greywardenblue'>greywardenblue</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>October Daye Works [31]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>October Daye Series - Seanan McGuire</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Established October "Toby" Daye/Tybalt, F/M, Post-Book 8: The Winter Long, Tybalt doesn't even appear but this is still very much about their relationship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 00:23:00</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>412</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24883108</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/greywardenblue/pseuds/greywardenblue</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Toby meets Opal's daughter for the first time, and as the two women end up alone, she has some questions.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>October "Toby" Daye/Tybalt</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>October Daye Works [31]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2249427</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>love is like a child</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This takes place immediately after the short on Seanan's Tumblr: https://seananmcguire.tumblr.com/post/99854151975/im-currently-reading-through-the-toby-daye-series</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The little girl was truly beautiful. Toby looked at her dark gold hair with the brown stripes and the white blotches, and wondered how any Daoine Sidhe noble could see her as anything less. The girl wasn't hers but she cried anyway, whispering <em>Alazne</em> into her hair.</p><p>"Tybalt said they age differently in the beginning," she said finally. "Is that still true for changelings? If only one half is Cait Sidhe?"</p><p>Opal looked up at her and smiled - though maybe it was more of a smirk. "And what would the other half be?"</p><p>Drat. Of course she would see right through her. "A bit of a mix," Toby admitted.</p><p>Opal pretended to think about it. "Is the mother Cait Sidhe, or the father?"</p><p>Toby didn't know if she should be grateful or annoyed at her for playing along. "The father."</p><p>"And the mother isn't a shifter?"</p><p>Toby thought of a too-deep lake and shivered. "Not on a good day, no."</p><p>Opal nodded. "If the mother is not a cat, then the child will be born humanoid and the first shift will be in the other direction. The child will develop as a human baby would, although once they learn to shift they tend to prefer the four-legged form, since it develops so much faster and is more mobile at that age."</p><p>"Oh." She didn't think of that. "So if the mother is... in two-legged form, there's no chance of the baby being born as a cat?" She didn't realize she was worried about that until she asked the question.</p><p>Opal laughed. "No, there isn't. That would be quite a shock, wouldn't it?"</p><p>Toby snorted. "More of a shock if she didn't know what the father was." Toby had known Tybalt for most of her life, and had seen him let down his guard more often since they grew close. She had loved him for who he was, and she could not imagine him being otherwise.</p><p>Opal chuckled with her but said nothing, and Toby looked down on Alazne again, staring in awe at the kitten-girl. "Good to know," she whispered, more to herself than anyone else.</p><p>It was a daydream that seemed so far away, out of reach. But isn't that what Tybalt loving her had been for so long? Back when she came back from the pond, the man despising her was as natural as the moon waning. Things were different now.</p><p>
  <em>The sun rose; the tide turned; Tybalt loved me.</em>
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